A Guide to Chess Improvement features the very best of Dan Heisman's multi-award winning chess column Novice Nook, which has run for the past ten years at a popular website. This book is full of valuable instruction, insight and practical advice on a wide range of key subjects: general improvement, thought processes, planning and strategy, tactics, endgame play, technique, time management and much more.

What separated Alexander Alekhine from the rest of his contemporaries? Why did he dominate the chess world for so long? The main reason was undoubtedly his brilliant attacking style of play. Alekhine had a combinative gift and thrilled the chess public and influenced every great chess player since. Garry Kasparov once said I fell in love with the rich complexity of his ideas at the chessboard. Alekhine's attacks came suddenly, like destructive thunderstorms that erupted from a clear sky.

In American Grandmaster, Benjamin takes the reader on a journey through chess adventures spanning more than thirty years. Tracing through his own career, from being a prodigy in the 'Fischer boom' era thorough to an experienced Grandmaster with many titles, Benjamin is in a unique position to highlight the major changes that have occurred both in US and international chess throughout the last four decades.

Leading chess author Colin Crouch believes that the key to sustained chess improvement lies in the critical analysis and assessment of your own games. Each and every game you play provides a significant learning opportunity, and this opportunity should never be squandered.

In this book, Grandmaster Zenón Franco examines in detail Anand’s chess career to date. He selects and studies his favourite Anand games, and demonstrates clearly how we can all improve our chess by learning from Anand’s play.

One of the finest chess books ever written, now revised in algebraic edition. The author expounds both the basic principles and the most complex forms of attack on the king. It has been updated by legendary author GM John Nunn. Still one of the great classics ever written on tactics.

In this book, former American Open Champion Cyrus Lakdawala invites you to join him in a study of his favourite Botvinnik games. Lakdawala examines Botvinnik's renowned skills in the key areas of attack and defence, initiative, exploiting imbalances, accumulating advantages and endgame play. He demonstrates clearly how we can all improve by learning from Botvinnik's play.

In this instructive and entertaining book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald studies in depth the key components of successful rule-breaking in chess. Drawing upon his own experience and using examples from modern grandmaster chess, McDonald examines how to avoid stereotypical thinking, how to exploit typical thinking patterns, and how to confuse and beat opponents with surprising ideas.

Jose Raul Capablanca is a chess legend, world champion and quite simply one of the greatest players in the history of the game. His achievements and seemingly effortless style of play won many admirers, and his legacy includes a treasure of instructive games. Studying Capablanca's play is a must for any aspiring chess player. For Cyrus Lakdawala, it was a key factor in his chess development and improvement, and in this book he revisits many of his favourite Capablanca games.

Despite his relatively young age, Magnus Carlsen has already secured his place in chess history as a legend of the game. In a short space of time his accomplishments have been extraordinary. In December 2012 he broke Garry Kasparov’s record to become the highest-rated chess player of all time.

Learn to play the great game of chess with none other than Garry Kasparov, the World number one and the most famous figure in chess history, as your teacher. Discover all the various pieces - the king, the queen, the knights, the bishops and the pawns. Find out how the pieces move, the values of the chessmen, how to attack and how to defend, how to capture, how to employ special moves such as castling, how to write the moves down and, crucially, how to give check and deliver checkmate.

Four-time US Champion Yasser Seirawan provides a fascinating and highly entertaining account of his games and encounters with the world champions of chess including: Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, Mikhail Tal, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Botvinnik and Max Euwe. Having been involved in frequent battles against world champions over a 25-year period, Seirawan is in an ideal position to reveal how it really feels to be facing the legends of the game. He describes and analyses, in depth, his most memorable encounters - both famous victories and painful defeats, against the best chessplayers of the last 50 years.

Award-winning chess coach Erik Czerwin’s unique training method begins by studying the simplest chess positions with very few pieces – and then moves on, step by step, adding more pieces to the board. Complex ideas are always built up from simpler situations, ensuring that the learning curve stays flat.

Chess Secrets is a series of books which uncover the mysteries of the most important aspects of chess, such as strategy, attack, defence, opening play, endgames, off-board preparation and mental attitude. In each book the author chooses and deeply studies a number of great players who have excelled in such aspects of the game, greatly influenced their peers and inspired all of us.

In Great Chess Romantics, Craig Pritchett selects five players, whose chess artistry expresses a deeply personal commitment to the discovery and revelation of great new truths and beauty on the chessboard. Anderssen defined romanticism’s inherently dramatic and correct combinational core. Chigorin championed this essence in splendid opposition to an emerging new classical consensus. Réti revealed the extraordinary power of new flank openings. Larsen confounded the overly sober, scientific Soviet “school” at innumerable turns. In the computer age, Morozevich constantly discovers new depths to chess, while simply oozing exquisite strokes in his best games

Want to improve at chess? Then you'll need to improve your understanding of chess strategy. You probably knew that already - but how to begin to study such a vast and seemingly complex subject? International Master Adam Hunt is a full-time chess teacher and is thus very familiar with this problem. His solution is to present an accessible and easy-to-read guide for club players and juniors. Hunt studies all the key components of chess strategy, including development, king safety, attack and defence, initiative, pawn play and much more. He examines not only grandmaster games but also those played by students, demonstrates model strategic play, identifies typical mistakes and explains how to avoid them. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess

In this book grandmaster Nigel Davies provides that direction. He examines the methods used by a number of players who were looking to improve their game, and how they went about achieving their goal. He has drawn heavily on the games and thoughts of players who have been his students over the years and experienced a clear improvement in their play.

Nigel Davies is a Grandmaster with more than 35 years of tournament experience. He is a highly regarded chess teacher and the author of many successful chess books.

Tigran Petrosian was a World Chess Champion and a true legend of the game. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" because of his incredible defensive skills that made him a formidable opponent who was virtually impossible to defeat. Petrosian was the master of restraint, prophylaxis and prevention. He could spot and defuse threats well before they were created, suck the life out an opponent's position and then seize a vice-like grip on the game. In this book, International Master Thomas Engqvist selects and examines his favourite Petrosian games, and shows us how we can all learn and improve our chess by studying Petrosian's masterpieces.

Leading chess author Colin Crouch believes that the key to sustained chess improvement lies in the critical analysis and assessment of your own games. Each and every game you play provides a significant learning opportunity, and this opportunity should never be squandered.

In this instructive and entertaining book, Grandmaster Neil McDonald studies in depth the key components of successful rule-breaking in chess. Drawing upon his own experience and using examples from modern grandmaster chess, McDonald examines how to avoid stereotypical thinking, how to exploit typical thinking patterns, and how to confuse and beat opponents with surprising ideas.

What separates the best chess players from the rest? What gives them the edge over their rivals? Chess legend Vladimir Kramnik believes it's their fighting skills and the ability to continuously find ways to keep a game alive. Colin Crouch agrees, and is fascinated that the world’s strongest players seem almost unbeatable, even when games appear sharp and double-edged.

Grandmaster and renowned chess trainer Michal Krasenkow presents a treasure chest of puzzles designed to stretch the minds of all players. Imagination and calculation are two of the most important qualities of a chess player, and they are qualities which, with purposeful practice, can be developed significantly. As you analyse and solve more and more positions, your brain functions more efficiently, you are able to recognize and master additional tactical methods and patterns, and it becomes increasingly easier to solve similar types of positions.

In this collection of his best games, Grandmaster Alexei Shirov shows why he is widely regarded as one of the most aggressive and inventive players of the modern era. It contains a delightful selection of his favourite games, each of which is explained in detail, together with sections on tactical highlights and endgames.

The battle for the World Chess Championship has witnessed numerous titanic struggles which have engaged the interest not only of chess enthusiasts but also of the public at large. The chessboard is the ultimate mental battleground and the world champions themselves are supreme intellectual gladiators. These magnificent compilations of chess form the basis of the first two parts of Garry Kasparov's work on the history of the World Chess Championship.

Vladimir Kramnik is a giant of the chess world. He firmly secured his legendary status when he won the World Championship in 2000 by defeating the previously dominant Garry Kasparov - the only player ever to do so in a match. Kramnik held on to his crown for seven years, and today he remains one of the World's elite players. In this book, former American Open Champion Cyrus Lakdawala invites you to join him in a study of his favourite Kramnik games.

Club players are unaware of the subtleties that exist in grandmaster chess. Grandmasters can analyse chess at a depth that is unfathomable to amateurs. Moreover, they have extensive knowledge of chess history and opening theory, as well extraordinary endgame technique and tactical vision. However, having reached such a high level can make it difficult to understand what is lacking in the mind of the amateur.

Following his highly acclaimed Mastering Chess Strategy and Mastering Opening Strategy, this book completes a trilogy of strategy books by Grandmaster and renowned chess teacher Johan Hellsten. In his new work Hellsten focuses exclusively on endgame play and covers every type of endgame: pawn, minor piece, rook and queen endgames. He examines not only the many fundamental positions that everyone needs to know, but also the key themes and characteristics of successful endgame play, including activity, creating and exploiting weaknesses, active and passive defence, fortresses and technique

Did you ever notice how some famous GM games are more interesting to play through than others? For instance, tell me you have a Tartakower or Nimzowitsch game and I'm sorry, but I just can't get that excited. But tell me you have a Fischer, Alekhine, or Tal game you want to show me and woo-hoo!, break out the milk and cookies because I know I'm in for a real treat! And Mikhail Tal: Tactical Genius by Alexander Raetsky and Maxim Chetverik is loaded with enough tasty treats to satisfy the most demanding of palates.

I primarily ordered this because I was curious. I thought that it was going to be more or a "chess story/history" book, which in part it is. The dimensions of the book are 8 1/2" by 11" and the font is a little on the large side. Also the book is only 89 pages long. This is most likely because the book seems to be aimed and junior level players say beginners from approximately 10-14 years old.
The drawings are pleasantly done as far as I can tell all the chess positions that are part of the story or introductory part of the book have a "drawn" element to them. There are 68 test positions by my counting, and these are done with a more traditional chess font for the pieces, which is a good thing. Their are four test positions for almost every chapter or section, They are in given with increasing difficulty and they are labeled Rookie, Club Player, Club Champ and Expert. There are also about another 18 positions that are part of the stories and introductory sections of the chapters.
I would primarily suggest this book for parents, coaches and junior level players. For other players if you want to see and interesting and well done chess book and learn a little about chess history in a fun way then this book may also be for you as well.

This book explains piece values, strengths, weaknesses and simple traps like exposed check. It took my game from basic beginner to talented player in just a few months.
Highly recommend for all but master class or highly trained players.

I have read and owned other books by Alburt, including several in the Comprehensive Chess Course Series. I was interested in this title to see just how they would be condensing the other volumes. There is of course a lot of standard fair here. I am not impressed with the two chapters on the openings. They is some good advice but they are missing simple opening principles of king safety, active development of ones pieces, etc. As for typos I noticed one on one of the first diagrams I looked at. On page 68 the first example demonstrating the battery has 1. ...Rh1+ 2. Kxh1 Qxh2#. Well there is nothing on h2 so there is nothing for the Queen to take, i.e. (x). While this is only slightly annoying for me a new or beginning player might start getting confused. The other thing that I find annoying is the use of two different size board diagrams. Most of the diagrams are 1 5/8" square, but occasionally they switch to 1 1/8" squares for no apparent reason. Sometimes it seems like it is a device to save space but other times it wouldn't matter. As far as a space saving device it fails in it annoyance and distraction. Overall I give it a fair to good 3 stars for the breadth of information and the decent synthesis of it all. If you are a rated player of over say about 1600 there will be little new here for you unless you want a review of basics presented in perhaps new ways.

Why Sam Sloan and Ishi Press are redoing this book and in descriptive notation when the original abridged version is still available from Dover books for nearly half the price is a mystery and a shame. All the books that Ishi Press is "re-issuing" they are not updating the notation to any form of algebraic.

This book is not only interesting to read, but it also gave me new strategies in the game of chess. In the back of the book, it has a whole bunch of problems to do that comply with the lessons in the book. So not only does it show you the lessons, but it reinforces them with questions about them. There are very funny and interesting stories in this book, I loved the one about the man who caught his pants on fire and spooned soup into his lap while focusing on a chess position. Overall, this is an excellent book for the young, old and all fans of chess!

By Joel Johnson
Aug 23, 2012
What people are saying about this book:
===================================== Life Master Brian Wall (USCF: 2213) - 2 time Colorado State Champion =====================================
I think I've died and gone to heaven. Joel has a Fishing Pole chapter where I beat GM/s/IMs. also featuring games from many friends like Ted Doykos, Kevin Seidler, GB Salvio ( A Brazilian who plays Fishing Pole blitz and postal games ), Jack Young, Craig Thomson ( Goyathlay ) and many others. It also warms my heart when I see games from Ireland or my games in non-Fishing Pole chapters. Of course plenty of GM games plus plenty of original attacking theories straight from Joel Johnson's laboratory. As usual the games are arranged by themes with plenty of explanations and examples. This time it's even better because we get fan mail from the first book, Formation Attacks, from around the globe. This book is the easiest to sell I've ever handled. It's terrific to see Joel succeed with another instant classic.
Brian Wall
===================================== Randall Hoch (USCF: 1891) Texas =====================================
I am finding it as enjoyable as your first one. The games you have chosen are not only instructive, but also very entertaining. Your books have given me appreciation and motivation to play attacking chess from move 1. ... So I have to credit you with showing me the way! Best regards, Randy
===================================== Michael Stewart (USCF: 2267) Mississippi ===================================== I got your new book,outstanding work!!! Better than the first if that's possible. Both books are attacking classics,and should be on every chess players shelf.